Beached is the first production created by Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre and marks the start of an exciting new era for The Marlowe Studio, the theatre’s second space, dedicated to creative theatrical activity.

Morbidly obese Arty (James Dryden) has won the dubious accolade of ‘World’s Heaviest Teenager’ and, weighing in at over 60 stone, is virtually bed-bound. He sits atop a mountain of fast food packaging, dotted here and there with toys and other remnants of a childhood not as far in the past as the premature ageing bought on by his confinement would suggest. Closeted in his bedroom; he is literally stranded, not only by his huge weight but also by the love of his mixed up mother JoJo (Robin Weaver), who feeds him ‘to make him happy’.

Into Arty and JoJo’s cocoon of cream buns and endless re-runs of Murder She Wrote are thrown the TV crew of ‘Shocking Fat Stories’, who are paying for Arty to have gastric bypass surgery in return for the rights to follow his transformation from a third heart attack waiting to happen to the suave gent of his fantasies, and Jobcentre Pathways to Work Officer Louise Jelenic (Alison O’Donnell), who is determined that the ‘new’ Arty will find not only a job, but his purpose in life.

Under the ever-watchful eye of the documentary’s good cop/bad cop producer (Rhoda Ofori-Attah) Arty surprises everyone, not least himself, but not only breaking free, but falling in love.

Beached is a darkly comedic, but often bittersweet, exploration of addiction, obesity and an emptiness that no amount of food will fill. There are plenty of laughs, but coupled with the potentially dangerous power of a Mother’s love and the exploitative nature of reality TV, it is also thought provoking stuff.

There are strong performances from all four cast members, but especially from the endearing James Dryden, comic one moment and poignant the next; and from Alison O’Donnell, who provides the biggest laughs of the evening in a sequence where ‘do everything by the book’ Louise seriously loses her cool.

A well-written and skillfully-acted piece, Beached is a successful first production for the Marlowe Studio - I look forward to the next.

Laura Kimpton